Lee Kuan Yew Discharged From Hospital After Mini-Stroke

By Linus Chua -
Feb 17, 2013

Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first
prime minister, was discharged after being hospitalized two days
ago for a condition linked to a prolonged irregular heartbeat.

Lee, 89, was sent to the Singapore General Hospital after
the suspected transient ischemic attack, a condition with
stroke-like symptoms that clear within a day, according to a
statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The doctors are following up with him to optimize his
anti-coagulation therapy, in order to minimize the risk of
further transient ischemic attacks,” the PMO said in a
statement today.

Under Lee’s 31 years as Singapore’s first elected prime
minister, the nation was transformed from a colonial backwater
into Southeast Asia’s only advanced economy. He stepped down in
1990, handing power to Goh Chok Tong. Lee’s eldest son, Lee Hsien Loong, took over from Goh as the third premier in 2004.

The elder Lee stayed on in the cabinet under Goh and his
son, and resigned in May 2011 after his ruling party won the
general election with the smallest margin of popular vote since
independence in 1965.

When Lee was 86, he was diagnosed with sensory peripheral
neuropathy which impaired feeling in his legs, his daughter Lee
Wei Ling, a senior consultant at the National Neuroscience
Institute in Singapore, wrote in a column in the Sunday Times in
November 2011. He also had a heart pacemaker implanted in 2008
after suffering from an irregular heartbeat.

Top Ratings

The island republic is the only country in Asia with
triple-A ratings from Moody’s Investors Service, Standard &
Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

Thousands of Singaporeans demonstrated yesterday against a
government plan to increase the island’s population through
immigration, saying the policy will erode the national identity
and threaten their livelihoods.

Protesters gathered at Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park at
the edge of the city’s financial district on a rainy afternoon,
many dressed in black and carrying signs opposing the plan.
Lawmakers from Prime Minister Lee’s ruling party last week
endorsed a white paper that outlined proposals including
allowing more foreigners through 2030 to boost the workforce.